Melodies Immortalized: Chapter 1
by DelinquentZidane
Summary: Kuja goes renegade and lives in space for 2 years after a failed attempt to exile Zidane. Along with this freedom which allows him to drift listlessly through Madain Sari comes unintended obligations to one special little girl. He wanted to make his life


Disclaimer: The localization staff or whatever subsidiary of the development team has created the characters, easily deserves every ounce of credit. Generally, all 9 installments of Final Fantasy are property of "Squaresoft". And for the idiots (namely those who go around decreeing that they own Juunanagou) who don't believe in international copyrights, ever heard of "Trademark"?

No copyright infringement intended, and truthfully, this cannot produce profit of even 1.88 yen. (or however the hell quickly the exact currency stands) I'm not doing anything that constitutes legal action I remind you, until I start selling pirated versions of FFIX. =)

Let us all be smart little boys and girls, and use the observational skills that you acquired in 2nd grade to determine the settings of this story.

The first half is 12 years prior to FFIX.

The second is 10 years prior.

Good! Soon you'll be able to read Mary Sue Shakespeare with ease.

"Art Quina preparedeth to maketh love to thee?"

*is nauseated*

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Melodies Immortalized: Chapter 1

"Zidane... there is a planet. A planet in the oblivion. You wouldn't be able to see it here but-

"I can't see it!"

"Shut up, Zidane. If you were listening, you would have heard me said that it was not visible from this location."

"Presence can't always be granted by appearance, Kuja.."

A boy with a youthful demeanor of no more than 4 or 5 years about his age biologically, stood with his face sealed against a transparent restriction. Every consecutive movement in the cosmos drew him from any other tasks. Almost appearing like the abnormalities of the universe itself was the darting of his eyes. And then he remembered.

Kuja. Brother. Pandemonium. Location. 

All outward stimuli was magically barred it seemed, and he continued to analyze the artistic flooding of gasses in one obscure depth of the planet- Terra's mantle.

"You are an idiot, Zidane. You're just another of Garland's little marionette's to play with." ... "He's found more use for an experimental "female" genome than he'll ever have with you individually." ...

Zidane regretfully withdrew from the restriction and a warm unsettling pulse filled his face as it had before. Not only, he had Kuja maiming him verbally. But what had he done? No lack of compliances. No troubling behaviors. Garland had treated him perfectly fine so far, and 

contrary to Kuja's profound statement, in his opinion, he would not cease doing so.

"You're a a bitch, Kuja. I'm not sure what the point you're trying to make. I'm starting to doubt the socalled 'intelligence' that Garland gave you that's dominant to my own 'intelligence'."

He rose up from idle knees to face Kuja who had still surpassed his own height by about 3 feet. And an anxious grin grew. It was an experiment.

Perhaps it was his passive application of his thoughts. Zidane had sorted much everything out at this point.

"I'm going to do Garland a little favor. You'd really like to see this planet? I'm going to teach you how to jumpstart through the portal."

Zidane did not respond. Yet again he had succumbed to his brother's intimidation. Just a pillar he stood. No, a thinking pillar.

Who was he? Who was Zidane? 

"You're gonna go be thrown to some slum in an obviously inferior

civilization complex. You're gonna be the one who wastes the relationships with the worthless creatures of Gaia- You Kuja. You're the weak one."

And Zidane stood proudly, but still tried to contemplate where he had been instilled with the words. Kuja drew several stressfully misplaced

hairs over his ear and sneered,

"Screw you. You're trying to be Garland's little protege. I'm not gonna wait now, and out to Gaia you go."

Kuja did not demonstrate any aggressive or authoritative motions, but Zidane could tell that his "brother" was plotting in the now contorted position that he drew to the wall in. He shrugged it off.

"Besides, you're just wishing it happened to you, as Garland sent you off as low authority to go obliterate what we might call 'biological scum'."

Zidane trailed off with the purpose of his sentence unimportant, and approached one of the many chamber-dividers of Pandemonium. Kuja sensed 

his intention to exit and let off a hearty roar.

Assortments of lavender and silver orbs were instantaneously formed and 

shaken from the raging boy's hands like an anchor of it's loose rusty chains.

"T-the hell??? You're an animal!" Zidane lunged at the exit but several 

of these orbs trailed him and eventually exploded, implementing their components both into corresponding thighs. 

Closer and closer he found himself to the translucent wall which triggered teleportation, yet all of his stamina waist down was exiting 

seemingly from a psuedo hole at the arches of his feet.

"They are Slow and Stop orbs. I think they are self explanatory, though 

the Slow ones act as more of a tranquilizer now, credit to my modifications."

Kuja brandished a rather radiant and condensed orb of Thundaga that periodically caressed he did.

"You dog.. remove yourself from my facilities!" 

That crackling as old as time itself. Garland. It had been quite a few years he had even admitted since the beserk young man had been graced by his own creator. The one who formed him from little more than the adamant of the land and his own perversion.

"If you cannot satisfy yourself with those sporatically weak life forms, it does not grant you privileges to destroy my genomes! You monster!" Garland roared sharply.

The clanking of boots as dense as the cosmos corresponded to the vivid glare of eyes as they emerged from one of the many subsequent corners of Pandemonium. Just as Kuja had remembered, the scratch of 10 years did not mark the pale, fixed face of the man who had survived millenia.

He had almost achieved a biological artificialness seeming to be drifing along with the planet, not living on it. And yet he had no cybernetic components.

"I suppose it was a premonitory gesture, I was going to sieze a single of the planetary jewels."

Kuja, being educated imperically about Gaia; he had spend almost 8 on it in his ripe life of 12 years. 

"Unusually, I'm going to work from the slums upward."

He noticed Kuja's sharp nod of understanding.

"Yes, It's going to be Madain Sari. It's not going to be recent in your lifespan besides... I'm going to wait another four years. If you did know, the inhabitants of Madain Sari, summoners were born onto Gaia as the choosen of the species humans. Yes, Terra was inhabited by humans..."

Garland trailed but not accompanied with any expressions uncomfortableness or such.

"Hmm? Proceed Garland."

He swept up his cape and withdrew from Kuja into a corner, obviously in thought.

"The Summoners were born with extraperipheral sensory. They can detect certain things to the degree that less intelligent creatures; canines or so could. This allows them to summon. Every ten years, their abilities are nullified on the midnight when the moon is expected to turn bright garnet. I will be moving the Invincible into Gaia for photo-recharge in advance. The summoners could detect an

unworldly presence and flee, before that night. Your job is to divert the presence with bangles of your own power."

His eyes grew less tense after the brief he made. Both Kuja and Zidane paused to watch the waves of his wrinkles which were really the operation of his muscles, run across his forehead without any reason.

"We are wasting time now, Garland."

"And time is an endless commodity to spend- for me. Perhaps you can destroy your worldly comprehension by going and mingling with the creatures of Gaia.

He mocked.

And Kuja found perfectly the words to compose his next sentence.

"When you set your priorities you hold true to them. Carry them out.

Where is the efficiency in being a dreamer?"

Garland's eyes flashed instantaneously gruff and apparently anger burbled at the back of his throat producing a rather unpleasant noise like one of a knife scraping into rock.

"I am not an idle dreamer, you fool! Get out! Do not grace this planet any longer! No not mock me! Do not destroy my genomes! You dog...remove yourself!!!!" 

His hand was trembling with a deep red glint from the array of flare particles drifting in it he was charging.

"Yes, Master... If we cross paths again, face to face... Even if it is 10 years from now...I will kill you. Slaughter you brutally and burn your corpse in oil. The planet housing your ashes, Gaia will be detonated by me. Zidane will get to experience this firsthand."

A deep grin of humor arose from Garland's rarely lax face and he gestured several times in mockery.

"I thought I was the dreamer, Kuja." Garland muttered under his breath

at his audacious speech as Kuja stomped through the portal of Pandemonium.

"Yes, I am going to destroy Madain Sari and go on to sieze the four jewel shards myself. Zidane and Garland, and all of the pathetic silhouettes of that planet will feel my wrath."

And there was serenity. Serenity derived from complete and utter blackness. Nothingness. Kuja looked over his dominion of the universe.

"When you set your priorities you hold true to them. Carry them out. Grasp your oppertunities and crush the insects of the universe with them." His fist clenched as his face exibited a proud, malicious smile.

Kuja held proudly his position for almost 2 years. Any miscellaneoustime between 23 and 24 months prior, he descended to the Summoner's village of Madain Sari.

Several Moogles flocked down the streets incessantly chirping "Kupo" soon, Kuja almost lacked the wit to refrain from engaging them.

"Ugly little rats....shut the hell up I tell you!"

He finally bellowed, but over the chatter of conversations, business, and other routinely processions in the village his roar was another of the abnormal sound effects he observed.

"I must get around to skinning them raw at one point." 

And Kuja blasted into a hover stance, skimming the whole village for a temporary quarters. He eventually overlooked an odd dome structure adjacent to an eroded crater.

"Looks good enough, ha." The crater he drew near suddenly overshadowed him with an uncomfortable presence. Kuja resituated himself above the dome. There was an unusually radiant platter or panel aligned exactly with the pothole in the dome.

"Doesn't matter. I don't feel freezing like near that crater."

And he slowly descended, slashing the surface of a slight circulation of dust above the village.

It continued to persist as a typical monotonous day in Madain Sari.

Constant flickerings of magic were visible from the windows and not that the explosions jittered Sarah any more. The friendly moogles which had taken residence additionally in the village of summoners and usually acted as merchants or assistants in turn for support.

Simple lives they led, however it was the connection with nature that placed extra responsibilities upon them.

They could speak with illiterate moogles telepathically, if trained.

Eidolons were among their greatest accomplishment, to create if not tame. All of them were hypersensitive to Gaia's happenings.

The village had been pure for almost 1600 years now, yet they had a relatively small population. Despite the fantastic exports they could offer, they never left their haven of Madain Sari.

Certain things were artificial to only Madain Sari. Things they cared not to relinquish. You would only be able to get a perfect reflection of the sun's rays if you stared through the 4th window to the right in the temple.

The moon shown down upon it, and polished the clay structures to the point of pearl-quality, and even on rare occasions the two were out simultaneously and the "polished" houses were painted shades of garnet and orange.

Sarah had been given strange vibes the whole day. Of course she knew Leviathan's stirring under the impounding of the Lifa Tree would be the only explanation as she was told. Or would it?

The mainstreams were particularly clogged at the moment in early morning; no sooner than noon, moogles and tiny magical creatures carried on in the opposite direction about 15 feet above, and Sarah went about her own scampish, frivulous routines which she enjoyed.

Not a once of concern she possesed, as her mother was perfectly obivious to believe that her daughter was actually off feignly doing chores for some neighbor.

She wasn't a troublemaker however, as her efforts were all poured towards learning to climb a shelf in the library. A lumbering shale one, about the oldest. It had been transfered from a former structure which had collapsed out of sheer age. 

"The Supernatural Resource Facility" it had been called by the ancients.

"Before us?" Sarah had remembered that enlightening occasion almost a year ago, still an advancement in her surprising knowledge structure for a girl of six years.

"Yes, before us. At least five millenia." Her mother replied.

The summoners built upon that establishment to produce the village, and otherwise were impervious to the history of that structure.

Research could detect that it was simply a resource center. It was built crudely and quickly to be inhabited for only a few short years. Almost like a temporary site of an expedition.

The books on that shelf extracted from the ruins always fascinated her since she had layed eyes upon them. The books she always imagined were in a completely unknown language that she would go about decrypting with ease.

It wasn't uncommon for her to be wearing the almost constant face of determination which was usually smitten by the end of the day. Usually from exaustion or disappointment. Sarah put a surprising amount of strain upon herself as a 6-year-old, but argued that it would benifit to "straighten herself up".

She would usually dash to the second level of her house and emerge on the balcony. The alleys and pathways were all compact, meaning that the houses would usually be placed together. Sarah approached the railless rooftop edge for her normal route, carried daily to the library and back via the rooftops. She did not bare the stampede below that the adults called "traffic".

After receeding far enough, she would always make sure that her clothing was intact. It was quite unpleasant of her to loose her tight black necklace on one occasion and spend hours dusting up an alley to find it hinged on a single nail in her doorway. Fascinating how objects drifted.

Her typical attire a large two-pieced Kimono with sleeves on both halves allowed simple movement, until she tripped over in her own clothes. Her mother fussed vigorously over the girl's hair.

If she was to stay in one place for a second as would her hair, once said her mother. She would be allowed to grow it out if she took up an inactive interest such as writing or sowing. However Sarah did not care how pugnacious she would appear, and yet her mother won this conflict.

Every few months when it grew visibly beyond the small of her back it would be nipped by a pocket-blade of obsidian. Nothing large, just several clumps at a time until it curled into the foot of her jaw again. Sarah found this quite annoying, so she often too the initiative to cut it herself.

Not that she found them painful, but a useless routine. Maybe if the apparatus wasn't so blunt.

And landing gracefully from a straddle-jump to another building, Sarah progressed through the rooftops until she had approached a self-produced descension ladder. 

She would steal her mother's obsidian "hair-whacker" as it was teased, and carve deep notches into the side of a building. Not tremendously noticible ones but enough to fit her 

dainty fingers into, and grasp. This alley was adjacent to the library. 

And Sarah threw herself from the bottommost notch and after a brief second to catch her breath trudged to the easily destinguishable library- the largest building in the village. It was a large silent centre, about the only well-structured in the village.

Being unlikely domeshaped was quite a feat by the engineers. 

Outside the back end was leading into a cobbled pathway with a pleasant fountain, and then proceeding to the Eidolon wall, the summoner's scratchboard.

Sarah brushed aside the translucent cloth at the doorway of the library to hear only the screeching of her wet leather sandals scraping the marble floor. She was too tired to lift them up in a proper gait and continued to tolerate the screeching.

However this was a rare oppertunity. Sarah's mother had just recently taught her the lyrics to a soothing folk rhapsody. She had wanted to practice it discreetly and seeing how the chamber would not flaw an echo, Sarah drifted over to the exact center of the room, a circular relief of the known world. A symmetrical hole had been made above that

to emphasize it during the day. 

And there did she crumple to her knees, brush the hazelnut silk from her eyes and parse her mouth.

She was not aware of a spectator. Slumped against more or less of a collapsed bookshelf he could muffle the essential breaths he drew as to conceal is location. 

"Garland truly must waste his time vanquishing this little burrow?"

The figure yawned silently and surveyed the little child's moves.

Grumbling something, he jerked an arm in an unintended direction and the sleave was slashed by a misproportioned shelf with a jagged edge.

"Damn!~"

He was about to proceed and attend to it, but a soft whisper drifted across the room. Not that he was siezed by it, but he stopped everything to soon listen. It gained height. Disturbances began to stir 

in 'Kuja's whole figure. Suddenly he felt so weak. Kuja slipped to the floor temporarily and tried to contemplate what was occuring. His arms were trembling madly. 

"Gaia's requirement of noctural recharge has been taking effect on me..." He thought quickly, and didn't stop to explore any other definitions of his behavior. 

As Kuja rose his head up, something that surpassed any expectations of

an attack. The girl's singing reached a high point and required almost infinite vigor.

That role was fulfilled perfectly. Kuja was stricken as if a two-ton boulder was driven at 200 miles-per-hour into the back of his ribcage. He collapsed reluctantly as if trying to fight the automation of his own body, yet it was himself dragging him down.

"That couldn't be a girl singing... Th-that's an angel...no..."

Kuja struggled to breathe; his lungs felt toughened and did not contract as they did before. Just as the girl he was sectoring concluded, and relaxed the room, previously filled as a crater of burning emotion to perhaps more silent and damp than before. His arms gave out and he drew to the bottom of the floor snorting though his nose out of desperation desperation. 

The muffled whistling behind the rightmost shelf drew Sarah.

It almost seemed rhythmic like that of breathing. But how could something from the eidolon wall, the closest exit from that location, 

enter without footsteps or the audible processing of air; wings?

Of course she teased herself constantly, and calling out into open spaces was incidentally one of her favorites to expand upon her imagination. Sarah was able to reconfigure the echoes to say something, at least apparent to her.

"Hi Mr. Eidolon!" She called timidly. There was to be no response.

"Aw damn... Why am I beckoned to go play with a child that has never committed evils to the caliber of my own, and I feel too ashamed- wha?"

Kuja still hadn't confirmed what he had thought, but he just concluded that was the most idiotic and sentimental statement he had uttered in his whole existence.

And something arcane called out to him. It felt warm and domestic though and he lifted his chin to derive the breeze onto his colorless flesh.

"Think for a second. This is a child. An innocent one, grant that.

The child will result in your demise. A decade will tell. I suggest you kill her on the spot."

"What?! Dammit Garland!!! WE AGREED TO NO TELEPATHIC MANIP-"

Kuja had lost his composure at least twice over. No explanation.

And right now, his demands were vocalized, and quite loud and meaningless to a little child.

"What about telepathy, Mr. Eidolon?" 

And a smile drew across Kuja's face, uncontrollably. Not one of malicious plotting. A warm one. He did not fight it, a surprising amount of relaxation he recieved. Carried down by his priorities was like declaring to the world that he was its slave. He felt like a tiny child. 

And accepting all of this, Kuja revealed himself from the bookcase. The familiar face looked up curiously at him.

"Good afternoon! Can I look at your hair closely, miss?"

Sarah got up and skipped lightly over to Kuja.

"I am Kuja." And he tossed several scruffs of his silver hair behind his shoulder, but remembered to try and act humble to deal with a little child.

"You have a very sweet voice, little girl- He slipped. 

And that brought a proud smile across Sarah's face. Even at that tender age, she had several mature facial characteristics. Kuja fluttered at

the anticipation of how she might look in about 12.

"Thankies. I never knew that mans were allowed to grow long hair. I want to sooo badly! But my mean mother wants me to be proper."

"You have quite a predicament then." Kuja said giggling.

"I am not a grown man. I am only 14."

Sarah's eyes lit up yet again.

"I can take you home as my big brother then! You can tell my mommy to let me grow my hair as long as the Lifa Tree's vines!"

Kuja proceeded towards the girl until to be at a location where she could spring onto his extended knee.

"Excuse me for being so rude. My name is Sarah. And if you didn't know already, this is Madain Sari."

Kuja tried to relate, as his little partner in conversation did so easily. He was going to speak solely the truth. 

"I-I...I live in Terra. It's a big ball in space."

"Hm?" Sarah shrugged the statement off much to his relief, and dragged him over to the shelf, which she had experienced difficulty reaching before.

"As a big brother, can you get all of these books off the shelf for me? I'm too tiny. I've tried for as long as I can remember. Please."

He was given an oppertunity to help her. All of these if-statements flooded his unconscious mind.

"I-I, Sure."

Standing at about 5'3, Kuja was easily able to reach the shelf, but felt foolish enlisting the support of a chair to assist him carry large

amounts of books down at once.

"Can you sit and read them with me? I'm quite lonely except for my s-

"Except for your song."

"Yeah."

Kuja now placed himself jokingly at the great omniscient ruler of the universe.

Sarah brushed vivaciously through the pile until she drew a rarely unscathed one.

"It has a funny triangle on it!" 

And that disrupted Kuja's current pleasure. One of Garland's observation journals it was. He wasn't certain if it was written in free script (Gaian) if Garland had concealed in the glyphs of Terra.

He was off staring into the boundless hole in the ceiling when Sarah consulted him again.

"This has funny scribbles in it! A baby wrote this book! Hehehe!"

Kuja cracked a smile at the perspective that Garland was an infant.

Besides, he never did any of his own work. All the more truth in her likely random statement.

And Sarah tossed the book aside, to find all of the others indifferent.

"I need to go home soon. Maybe you can stay! Yeah! My mother would allow a guest. All we do is tell her that we found you, half beaten to death by those ogres that live in Conde Petie!" 

Kuja was certainly undignified, slightly infuriated by the girl, but tried to force modesty.

"Don't trouble your mother..."

"Nah! It's fine! You should see all of the weird bums that come to our village!"

"Are you insinuating that I am a bum?" Kuja yapped harshly, beyond his control.

"Nope. You're my big brother. The one that I was supposed to have! Meh!"

Just something powerful about that role brought Kuja to take in perspective his liberty to Terra, which seemed faded and dull now.

"Sure she's an imperfect being, obviously. But that exact factor of her

is the appreciated part. Ingenuity... I feel this strange affinity to her."

"Before we go home, could you sing again? I liked it very much."

No response. But she began to raise her voice again, from that of a timid little girl's. It sounded surprisingly mature. Somebody at least of Kuja's age in equivalence to Gaia. He drew his head back until the sunset bounced as a mural onto his significantly pale face.

"I've never been happier." He admitted to himself, being allowed to bask in the natural light of day, and bathing in warm, immortal sounds that filled the room.

"Do you know that your song makes others feel funny inside? It makes them feel needed for something."

"Then I was lucky I found you! You can be my big brother!" Sarah leaned against him.

"I am just as fortunate.." He thought.

"Before, I wandered. I just wandered. Was I supposed to value life? Living it seemed to be a chore."

Muttered a melancholy Kuja. Sarah peered inquisitively with her button eyes into his deep face.

"Life should be fun, if that's what you're trying to say with big words. I'm just a little child, I have no responsibilities. I'm not depended on. Now we can go off and have all of these adventures!"

"Don't you have obligations to your family?"

"I do...I am only 6 years old, why would I go try to make anything out of myself?"

Sarah looked as to be proceeding, he mouth dropped and she lurched forward slightly, but then she replaced herself silently.

"..."

"What were you about to tell me?" Kuja tried to consult her.

"It was nothing. Nevermind. Psychobabble!"

This was the first display of her arrogance. He did not want to go about using multiple techniques to try to derive just a single statement from her. Almost any response to any friendly statement- a precious commodity at this point in their relationship could strengthen it. And then Kuja remembered. 

"You can tell your big brother anything." 

He tried to exhibit a friendly smile, previously thinking he was devoid of.

"You remember...Big Brother, yeah."

With Kuja's support, she went on.

"Summoners are supposed to live confined lives in a village. Never leave; if you don't understand those big words. I've already told many people that we cannot achieve growth without exposure; being around more people."

"You're really the economic genius, while everybody calls you the town idiot. Hmm."

Sarah's eyes lit up again, perhaps in good humor for his caricature, or

Appreciation for the seldom truth to his statement."

"What a joke! I'm never a genius! I'm a little inexperienced child! My life still has yet to be lived!"

And she threw her head back in hysterical laughing. Kuja could now see in its full glory, and appreciate how adorable she was. He carefully clipped hair no higher than her chin became all shaken, and the ends were sticking out now like some sort of an untangled animal-skin cap.

"I never told you that you look very cute? You look cute all the time. All the time."

A crafty expression emerged on the young girl's face.

"And because of that immense- very much, cuteness, that's my ticket to see the four corners of the world?"

"Heh heh heh." Kuja exchanged with his first achieved warmness. He hoisted himself to his feet now and bent down to a curious Sarah.

"You're leaving now?"

"Of course. Will that destination be the continent southern of here? Burmecia? Lindblum? Or will it be to the historic continent, the one southwest of here, with the old scary inverted castle or even the observatory built to see Terra?" 

Never were so many choices issued to Sarah as before. It seemed almost illusionary that an odd boy with strange clothing and long silvery hair would arrive suddenly and help her amount to something.

"I heard that far off, there is a city with a holy eidolon in its castle! The trader dwarves from Conde Petie told us that!"

"Hmm? Ah yah. That's Alexandria. There's an abominable castle there." 

Sarah gnashed a tiny bit of her sideburns that swung into her mouth and flicked it with her tongue. She rose to her feet, almost appearing as an authoritative president as she overlooked Madain Sari, and then glared at the radiating sun.

"That's where I want to go then."


End file.
